When the Desert Fathers first formulated a list of “mortal” sins, they included the sin of sadness. Even Pope Gregory the Great replaced it with “laziness”, as if to say that sadness is, at heart, a problem of laziness.
But how can sadness be a sin, is it not an automatic feeling over which we have no control? The Desert Fathers called it “acedia”, or “the demon of noon”. They identified it with a sadness that tends to overwhelm us without apparent reasons for it. They distinguished it from the sadness we feel when we have a reason, (a significant loss, an upset, a physical pain, a major break-up…). Acedia strikes in broad daylight, when there is no apparent reason for sadness.
Anything can cause it to appear: hearing an old song on the radio, a dried plant, a Sunday afternoon, an annoyance over the smallest things, a dull moment, a… And, it makes you spend the hours chewing over pain or failures, instead of savouring real joys or nourishing yourself with hope. There are those who spend more time complaining and lamenting than proclaiming the joy of living.
Yet how can these things be sin? Sadness in itself is not a sin, but it can be the devil that tempts us, incites us to sin. How does he do it? You can nail us to that sadness and make us feed it and even “delight” in it. Some people seem to live “for” sadness. They rationalise and justify it in such a way that they believe it is impossible to break free from its chains. Sadness is always bitter loneliness that prevents us from opening up to others and doing good. Perhaps because it is an omission, the Church calls this sin laziness.
I repeat: sadness is certainly not a sin. Sometimes it is unavoidable. What is inevitable, and surely a sin, is voluntary sadness. It is not without reason that Dante places in the depths of his hell those who are voluntarily sad, those who, for some unknown reason, have the habit of encapsulating themselves in their sorrows.
If we feel we are “children of the Kingdom” and come to recognise this old devil of noon, let us turn on the music again, let us resume our tasks, hopes and prayers. And, let us joyfully continue to build the Kingdom. Because we must recognise – this time with “sadness” (the good kind) – that many more people are destroyed and pulverised by bitterness than those who have been able to turn it into strength and joy.
Juan Carlos cmf
(PHOTO: Arash Payam)
